国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

The curious part is that on the ground where the inventors of Hota Sangpo
and Tarkou tchou placed their rivers, one of the highest mountain-systems in the
world is really situated, namely Transhimalaya. When Dutreuil de Rhins without
hesitation accepted the representation of the Ta-ch'ing map, and when Capt. (now
Colonel Sir) H. TROTTER with some hesitation, i. e. with dotted lines, accepted Nain
Sing's rivers, they gave us excellent examples of the standpoint of European know-
ledge regarding the existence of Transhimalaya! Whilst some geographers con-
structed tremendous mountain ranges north of the Tsangpo, others defended the
existence of large rivers at nearly the same place.

Of greater value are the following facts related in the Chinese geography:
‹Le mont Samtan gang tsa est à 180 li (40 milles) au nord de Poumdo; le Lar-
gan la à 140 li (30 milles), le Nian tsian tang ra à 130 li (28 milles) et le Tengri
nor à 220 li (48 milles) dans le nord-ouest de la même ville . . .› All these
mountains were seen by Nain Sing on his journey in 1873—74, and he calls them
Sámdán Kángjiáng, Dam Lhargan Pass and Ninjinthangla.

Even on such a recent edition of Stieler's Hand-Atlas as 1901, the prob-
lematic road from Khotan to Lhasa is entered.¹ It goes from Khotan to Polu,
crosses the Kwen-lun-mountains, passes Ilitsi, Aritau-tun, Atan-gol, Suget, Imam-
Mula, south of the mountain-range Schatu-tu-daban, continues, always S.E. to Sari,
follows the northern shore of Chargut-tso to Nakdzong and finally continues to the
western shore of Tengri-nor. The latter part of this road is entered on the Ta-ch'ing
map as given by de Rhins, and called ›Route de Khotan à Lhassa‹. It passes five
lakes with Mongolian names and one place, Nak dzong. If this is meant to be the
province of Naktsang, the journey over high, uninhabited plateaus has become con-
siderably shorter, for, from the beginning of Naktsang to Lhasa, the travellers from
Khotan should come into contact with nomads the whole way. But it is difficult to
reconcile the northern part of the road with the following description as quoted by
de Rhins from the Si yu tou tché or Orography of Chinese Turkestan:²

›Les ramifications des Tsong ling se dirigent vers le sud-est et constituent les Nan chan
ou montagnes méridionales qui commencent au sud-est du territoire de Khotan. En allant vers
le sud-est, on rencontre les monts Chatou tou daba dont la chaîne est enclavée dans le désert
de sables. — A partir des hameaux situés sur les montagnes de la frontière orientale du Kho-
tan, la chaîne du Chatou tou se dirige vers l'est, traverse le Yechil nor (le district du), puis
le désert de sables sur l'espace de 600 li. Les pics se succèdent sans interruption jusqu'à l'ex-
trémité septentrionale du Chatou tou.›

From such vague and uncertain information we cannot suggest the course of
this road. De Rhins has tried to reconstruct the whole road between Khotan and
Lhasa as given on the Chinese map, but he has not had sufficient dates at his disposal.

De Rhins' examination of the Chinese sources leads him to the general con-
clusion that it is preferable to omit all ranges and chains from his maps, ›comme